Sunday 8th August - Stuart Highway (Newcastle Waters Rest Area) to Katherine

It's too hot. We're going to have to acclimatise again as weíve driven back into 30oC plus territory. Last night was our first night out of our sleeping bags and back under the duvet, which was nice, and we dug out our shorts this morning.

Nearby Newcastle Waters developed first as a pony express station in the 1870s, bridging the ever decreasing gap at the end of the Overland Telegraph Line, and then as a cattle station due to the ample water nearby.

Stock routes crossed here, and it became the depot for the construction of a series of bores in the 1920s, with many of the buildings constructed in the 1930s along one side of the single street (due to flooding, only Max Schoberís store was built on the west side). The Junction Hotel was built by the debtors of John Sargent to clear their slates, and includes scraps of old windmills once used to power now abandoned bores.

The advent of transporting cattle by road in the 1960s resulted in the ghost town feel Newcastle Waters has today, and you can wander around the empty hotel and Jones' store which both house a collection of period artefacts.

A few of the 15 or so houses are still inhabited, but we saw no sign of people (although it was early on a Sunday morning).

Our next stop to break up the boring drive up the Stuart Highway was Daly Waters, something of an outback institution and apparently the oldest pub in the Territory (licensed since 1893), although today itís more for the tourists than the jackeroos. Interesting collections of items from visitors adorn the walls with bank notes, beer mats, stubbie holders, driving licenses, flags, number plates, sports jerseys, business cards, thongs and a fine selection of bras all jostling for space.

As it was 10am we settled for ice creams rather than a cold beer, then it was back on the road. SPOT

As it was Anne's birthday we decided to stop at Fran's Devonshire Teahouse at Larrimah for lunch where, being a Sunday, Fran was serving up her "roast in a roll" (roast lamb, mashed potatoes, vegetables and gravy in a bread roll) which was delicious. Dessert was an equally tasty home cooked scone with jam and cream.

Then it was back on the seemingly endless highway until we reached Katherine in good time to check-in to one of the caravan parks for a well earned shower. SPOT